A bill introduced Wednesday by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), and supported by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), would prohibit the Trump administration from extending the primary U.S.-Russia nuclear arms-control treaty beyond 2021 without renegotiating the deal to curtail shorter-range Russian missiles.
The ‘‘Stopping Russian Nuclear Aggression Act’’ would prohibit the executive branch from spending any money in 2019 or beyond to negotiate an extension to the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START): a bilateral deal signed in 2010 that caps the number of long-range nuclear warheads and delivery systems Moscow and Washington may deploy.
New START is set to expire in 2021, but it could be extended into 2026. If the Cheney-Cotton bill passes, several requirements would have to be met to relieve the funding prohibition — among other things, President Donald Trump certifying that a New START extension is in the best interest of the United States, and the Kremlin agreeing to the “securing and reducing in a verifiable manner Russian tactical nuclear weapons.”
New START limits both sides to 700 deployed intercontinental- and submarine-launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers; 1,550 fielded strategic warheads; and 800 deployed and nondeployed long-range launchers. The parties said they met their treaty limits in February.
Cheney and Cotton unveiled the bill only about a month after Trump announced the United States would cease complying with the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which prohibited the U.S. and Russia from deploying ground-launched missiles, nuclear or conventional, with a range between 500 kilometers and 5,500 kilometers (about 310 miles and 3,100 miles). Strategic weapons essentially have a global range.
At deadline Wednesday, Cheney’s bill had not yet been referred to the Senate and House Appropriations committees, which have jurisdiction over federal spending.
